I'm making a really super version of bloodgulch, but still having some problems figuring out how to work with portals in the map (errors seem random sometimes). Anyway, I present some initial work on Bloodgulch Extreme.

You've seen Ultimate Bloodgulch and you've seen Coagulation, but you've never seen anything like this (as far as what I'm planning this will be)...

Success! I have finally discovered how to use portals so that they don't cause problems in the map!

Took me 3 days of testing to figure this out:

- When you make an sbsp in 3ds Max, you must include portals in your design.- Portals are planes which can have any number of certain uses, as applied in Sapien after building the sbsp tag with Tool.- The basic workflow for making a level in 3ds Max includes:

1. Making a simple, small box and giving it the name frame and placing it at the coordinate world center or some other unobtrusive location away from where your level will be located.

2. Importing an existing level using a separate application (bsp extractor from HaloMaps.org) which converts it to .obj formator2. Creating a new terrain using the sealed-world rules (basically, making an enclosed polygon)

3. Creating materials; each object in your level can have only materials from a single material group assigned to it (copy materials between material groups if you must).

4. Designing the level bsp as you so choose. You should start by inverting all the faces of the level so that the player can be "inside" the glorified box which is the environment. You can attach and detach objects from each other so you can manipulate them better according to the sealed-world rules. You typically end up welding vertices and doing some beveling and extruding along with scaling and moving vertices, edges and faces.

5. Applying material groups to objects, applying material IDs to the faces of one object at a time, applying a UVW Wrap modifier and setting the bitmap to tile as desired over the surfaces -- or using UVW Unwrap to more specifically skin an object -- and finally converting the UVW Wrapper back to editable mesh so the object keeps the proper UVW appearance.

5a. The material group you are using on your level's terrain should also include a separate material with the name +sky which does not reference any bitmap file. Apply this material ID to the faces of your level that the player would not touch and where you want the sky to render. The +sky material cannot normally be made render-only (applying the "!" flag to that material name does not remove its collision) and the player cannot pass through it but projectiles that touch it will disappear.

6. Create some portal volumes. There are two portals: +portal and +exactportal. Both can be used in basically the same ways. +Portal volumes are used to generally parse the map into segments so that the game engine can handle it. They more dramatically affect rendering occlusion than +exactportal volumes. Generally, though, you can use both types of volumes to create environment areas that in Sapien can have unique Sound Environment (snde), Background Sound (lsnd) and Weather (wind and rain) tag references. Portal volume areas are created by making faces and planes whose face normals (frontside or backside of the faces of a mesh) face a certain direction, or whose polygons are parallel.

Creating +portal volumesTo start, zoom out so your entire level is visible. Now view the level directly from the left or right side, and make a perfectly vertical plane on the left side of the level, outside of the level. The plane can be very simple and have only four vertices. Delete any faces on the backside of the plane so that you are left with face normals facing in a single direction only and so you have a single, flat wall for a plane. Move the plane to the outside of the level and extend its edges so they pass beyond the size of the entire level. Now shift-move this plane to duplicate it, dragging the new plane to the opposite side of the level, again outside the level. Do the same process with two more planes exactly perpendicular on the front and back sides of your level. You should now have what is effectively four separate walls around the outside of your level, encasing it like a box without a top or bottom. Adjust these portal planes so their corners slightly intersect each other but do not weld their vertices into actual corners; you just want the portal planes to surround your map like four walls, but have the edges of the walls pass through each other a little bit. Double check to make sure the walls do not enter the level environment bsp. Finally, make a new material group and create a sub-material called +portal and apply that material to the four portal planes you made. This is all you need to do to make the level actually compile properly, as far as portals are concerned. (If your level is huge, you might need to drag-copy one of those planes into the center of the map, but this tactic will create some slight rendering anomalies if you also use +exactportal volumes in the map.)

Creating +exactportal volumesThis is much more logical to make. Basically, here's what you do:1. Select the level.2. Find some places where you want to create a separate environment, such as the doorway or entrance to a base, tunnel or cave.3. Carefully create some faces to cover that "hole".4. Flip the faces of that cover so they face the "outside" of the volume. The volume might be a hallway or doorway to a base, in which case you would flip the faces so they face the outside of the base or hallway, so they would be facing you as you entered the base or hallway area and so after you entered the base and turned around you would see the backsides of the faces you just passed through.5. Within that designated area, do the same thing with any other "holes" or doorways to that area.6. When the bsp is compiled, the game engine recognizes both the terrain walls and the +exactportal faces you make as boundaries of your individual +exactportal volumes. It also recognizes as a separate portal area those spaces between each +exactportal volume you create. With bloodgulch, for example, each base has a front entrance, a back entrance, and a large hole in the top at the middle. If you wanted to designate a separate portal environment for the bases in the level, you would make an outward-facing cover for each of these "holes" in the bases. If you wanted to divide the base up into even more environments, you would create some more polygonal covers within your existing +exactportal volume, for example, to distinguish between the hallways and the center area of each base. However, it's poor form to "nest" +exactportal volumes within each other. Instead, create separate volumes for each specific area; the space between those volumes will also be defined as a separate portal volume, since the level conforms to sealed-world rules. You only need a single +exactportal cover at any one location -- do not create at the same place an +exactportal facing in one direction and another facing in the opposite direction, or else you will end up making just another portal area in the slight wedge area between the faces of those separate planes. Just make a single cap for a single hole, and face it outwards of the volume you are trying to define.7. Create a new material ID called +exactportal, making it of the same material group as the +portal material.8. Detach the portal objects you created from the level terrain into one or more new objects, name them, select them, apply the material group to them, select all their faces, and apply the new +exactportal material ID to them.

Make sure that the +portal planes do not enter inside the map... and if you decide to bisect your map with a +portal plane, make sure that this particular plane does not enter an +exactportal-defined volume.

You should now basically have a single +portal volume spanning your entire map which will allow the level to be parsed by the game engine and several +exactportal-defined areas of the map which will get specific environmental attributes as earlier described.

7. Link everything you want in the level to the frame object. Check your hidden objects also, to make sure you unhide everything that you want included in the level. If you hide and then unhide something, you will probably need to re-link it to the frame object. Save and export the level to a .jms file, saving it within your level's "models" folder found in the data folder of your Halo CE directory.8. Run in cmd, for example, "tool structure levels\test\bloodgulch bloodgulch_test" to build the "bloodgulch_test" sbsp tag. (Use the path to your own saved .jms file instead.)9. You should get something like the following:

...which means that you now have a successfully-compiled sbsp tag!10. Make a .scenario tag with Guerilla, reference your sbsp tag all the way at the bottom of the scnr tag, quit Guerilla and open the .scenario tag with Sapien.11. Wait for Sapien to load the level. Adjust your windows if necessary. Click on the Game view window. Hold the middle mouse button and press the tilde ~ key.12. Type:radiosity_start13. Wait until you see some colored faces of the level. Interrupt the process by holding the middle mouse button and pressing the tilde key again.14. Type:radiosity_save15. You should now see your level, and you should not see any rendering anomalies, but the entire level should appear properly. Press the shift key 4 times to adjust camera speed to 60, use the WASD RF keys while holding the middle mouse button over the game window to navigate your map and make sure you don't get any stupid white splotches occluding the appearance of the level from any vantage point. If you have problems, re-read what I said about +portal and +exactportal volumes and try again in 3ds Max.16. Next, in Sapien, bring your camera within some portal volumes and press space bar to add some cluster data to each portal volume. First, you create some references in cluster templates and you select them in the "tool" window, you deselect a selection box around whatever you were clicking on in the "tool" window, then you go back to the game window and move the camera into a volume area and apply some sound environments, background sounds (both are necessary before sound will play in the level) and weather to the +exactportal and +portal volumes you made. But right after you add new items to the cluster template, with the clusters folder still selected, save your sbsp and quit sapien so it will play the new sound references you added as you add them. Then come back and actually apply them to the portal volumes.17. If you got this far, you might want to do "radiosity_quality 0" or a final "radiosity_quality 1" and then "radiosity_start", wait for the lightmaps to render better, then save your sbsp and add some stuff to your scenario and save your scnr.18. Quit Sapien. Go back to Guerilla, open the sbsp tag and give it a vehicle ceiling and floor (both are optional). Save.19. Run "tool build-cache-file levels\test\bloodgulch\bloodgulch_test" (use your level's path and name). Your map should compile fine.20. If Halo crashes, it's a problem with your scenario tag, not with your scenario_structure tag.

Either you are groping for answers, or you are asking God and listening to Jesus.

Bloodgulch Extreme will be something like every great concept mod idea I've had for bloodgulch in the past, but a lot more super duper and amazing, since I finally have a workable 3ds max file of bloodgulch.

EDIT: More screenshots:

Either you are groping for answers, or you are asking God and listening to Jesus.

A Visually stunning bloodgulch? With new tweaks on the way things work? You should let me get in on this with my jpt! modifications like in ZA, that way bullets show they hit and when you hit shit you can feel it.

It takes me 1 hour to add any significant change to the map's sbsp, such as installing a new tunnel system between two predetermined exits. That includes everything during time spent between booting up the computer into windows xp all the way until uploading the new version of the halo demo mod to HDM. So I expect to spend at least a couple more hours on this before version 1.0 is released.

- adding an underground tunnel system between red and blue bases with one offshoot tunnel towards the red cave. there will be barrier scenery in the tunnel and some sniper weapons along the way to encourage tunnel sniping between the bases spanning the length of the map. vehicles will not be able to pass through this area, however, but there will be a separate offshoot functioning as an underground highway for warthogs, like a tram system circuit between the bases

- teleporters will take you to special locations... not to be disclosed here.

Either you are groping for answers, or you are asking God and listening to Jesus.

I did notice two things. The background music restarts when you pick up that special sniper rifle on the cliff. Also one of the doors at blue base makes it impossible to go up the ramp without crouching.

I have to say that this map is pretty immense. There are a few rough edges (as I'm sure you are aware) but it looks stunning, and the bsp is now more interesting. Maybe combine it with a few more weapon modifications to spice up the actual combat.

This is what I've done so far:- adjust wind values (so I don't have to fix that in eschaton)- add teleporters in the stairwell up from the pit areas in case you fall down there- remove the stun from the dragonuv- finish base security systems- add lights (really do a lot for the map's appearance after running radiosity again)- fix the floor in front of the red cave stairwell

This is what I am doing next:- experiment with fog and weather (add tags for only bugs and wind, and only bugs) -- fog I'm having a problem with, because it seems like you can only have fog planes that span an entire map's z-axis coordinate; I was trying to get it so that you can terminate a fog plane at a certain height beneath or above it; I'm almost done experimenting with this

- underground tunnel system linking the two original bases (the actual details are a surprise... which I know you'll think is amazing)

- portal everything

- mess with unicode text string values to add the info for the security system control switches

- more lights

- more king of the hill, oddball and race markers

- adjust vehicle floor and ceiling in guerilla to test in sapien

- finish it up

- run final radiosity

- convert to halo demo (and when pearl 2.0 comes out) and full---the final version of this is 1.0 and should include all the above. there will be several side-line areas that pay homage to other maps (the stairwell is modified from b30's 2nd bsp) such as The Silent Cartographer and Sidewinder. ctf gameplay will be special, since the red base is in complete lockdown mode until someone deactivates the security system using a hidden panel. the blue base also has a security system, but it only prevents access to the base from above. the underground tunnel system between the bases will allow players to have underground sniper battles while the sideline bases will allow players to have clifftop sniper battles. but remember, the red base is tightly on lockdown until someone hits the security switch, so that is the red team's first point of defense in order to keep their flag and its base secure. the blue team can either try to focus on that security switch first or try to defend their less secure flag. neither team will have an advantage, though, since the only factor is the strategy decided upon by each team. (the blue team cannot take the red flag until it disables the red base security system, and the red team cannot score after taking the blue flag until their own security system is down... so does the red team disable their own security system or do they take the battle underground?) that's right, on the red side, you will have an alternative one-way access route to the tunnel network from below, since the tunnel system is an insecure passageway between each base; the red team's security system does not prevent tunnel access to the red base, so the blue team could decide to use the tunnels to easily and repeatedly score unless the red team defends through what is essentially a few holes in the top of the tunnels from the ground floor above.

Either you are groping for answers, or you are asking God and listening to Jesus.

OK I just spent a long time working on this, and I added something special to the middle of the map, in terms of terrain. You'll see what I mean in a day or two when I release 1.0.

I've got it pretty much figured out now about how it all will work. I can't really disclose much because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but there will be a great deal more added to the map than what you see in version 0.9, and the basic strategy I described will still apply: red team base is on lockdown and now there are two control switches that you can toggle to unlock its doors and disable the top security field access. I had to use two switches because the engine doesn't like it when you add both a lightbridge and some doors, and maybe some lights, etc. (a variety of different mechanical objects) to the same control switch.

Also, regarding limitations, clients will not see the switch effects, as control panel switch information about the states of objects does not synchronize.

I decided to make at least the red base's upper security field switchable on and off multiple times, to keep the strategy going throughout the gameplay. And if the blue team plays it right, they could trap some red team players inside their own base by reactivating their doorway security fields. It should be a fun map for strategy, because there are even more different methods of accomplishing your objectives as a team now.

Without spoiling anything, I am adding new features to the terrain and the cliffs and underground, strategically and aesthetically. Some areas are refined and recognizable from other maps while certain areas are roughly hand-formed as if the forerunner decided to spend more time on some areas rather than others.

I decided to abandon any ideas of modifying it like I did Weapons Evolved, but I'm trying to stay true to the original map as far as most of the weapons are concerned. This is turning out to be a great map for simply assault rifles and snipers, though.

Either you are groping for answers, or you are asking God and listening to Jesus.

1.0 release Thursday night, hopefully. Just need to add a couple more structures and the underground system and that's all. I've become skilled at adding previously-existing structures to the map's bsp, so that should go quickly with the last two. The underground tunnel system will take a few hours...

I also need to experiment more with figuring out how to make the red security system control panel work properly. If it doesn't work at all, I'll maybe just limit it to either the front or back entrances.

Oh and I'm adding some nice surprises to go along with the underground tunnel system...

Then it's +exactportal-ing it all and applying stuff in sapien and that's it!

When it's all done, I'm going to try a new lightmap procedure involving very high-quality lightmaps so that it will look great, even though there is no sunlight on the map at all anyway, so yeah.

...all told, maybe another 7 hours of work and that's it! (Having spent pretty much all day every day for the past 4 days at least on this thing, ~7 hours more is a drop in the bucket.)

Oh, and can anyone help me out with how to make breakable glass? What I did was detached the glass parts from the bsp, linked them to the frame, named them with a % in front of their names (%glass1, %glass2, %glass3) and gave them glass shader names ending in %- for two-sided and breakable, but I can't figure out how to use tool's "structure-breakable-surfaces" command since it asks for an object value rather than a directory or bsp name... I tried every logical command I could think of and still when I try to build a bsp with tool using "-" in a shader name, it fails, saying that the breakable materials index is not right (or does not exist). I looked on the net for how to use that tool command but to no avail. Any ideas?

Either you are groping for answers, or you are asking God and listening to Jesus.

Speaking of 1, it's 1:30pm and I am occupied with other tasks. I'll still try to get a release in for tonight. I spent a lot of time last night researching how to make breakable glass in the sbsp, but without any success. Ended with this topic: http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm?pag ... icID=40381

Fonzie, after I release 1.0, try it out and let me know which kinds of ideas you would like included in ZA besides what we've already discussed.

Either you are groping for answers, or you are asking God and listening to Jesus.